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With the last block of C4 in place at the northern end of the asylum, Lucan navigated his way through a ventilation duct that led to the outside. He removed the loosened grid and hoisted himself out onto the ground. The grass crushed beneath him as he rolled onto it, fresh air crisp in his mouth as he came up on his feet and started to jog toward the perimeter fence.

"Niko, how're we doing?"

"We're good. Tegan's on his way back and Gideon should be right behind you."

"Excellent."

"Got my finger on the detonators," Nikolai said, his voice nearly drowned out by the low chop of a helicopter encroaching on the area. "Say the word, Lucan. I'm dying to light this sucker up."

"Me, too," Lucan said. He scowled up into the night sky, searching for the bird. "We've got incoming, Niko. Sounds like a chopper heading right for the asylum."

As soon as he said it, he saw the dark shape appear over the tree line. Small lights flashed as the helicopter angled for the roof of the asylum and began its descent.

A breeze kicked up as the propeller beat its steady rhythm. Lucan smelled pine and summer pollen... and another perfume that made his blood run cold in his veins.

"Oh, Jesus," he gasped as the trace scent of jasmine registered. "Do not touch the detonators, Niko! For chrissake, whatever you do, you can't let that fucking building blow!"

Chapter Thirty-three

A volatile mix of adrenaline, rage, and absolute, marrow-chilling fear vaulted Lucan to the roof of the old asylum. The helicopter had barely touched down on its landing rails as he thundered toward it from the edge of the building. Lucan was vibrating with fury, more explosive and unstable than a tractor trailer packed with C4. He fully intended to rip the limbs off of whomever was holding Gabrielle.>"Boiler room is a check," he told Niko on the other end. "I've got three more units to set and then I'm out - "

He froze, hearing the scuff of footsteps outside the closed door.

"Lucan?"

"Shit. Company coming," he murmured quietly as he rose from his position and crept near the door to prepare to strike.

He wrapped his gloved hand around the hilt of a nasty serrated blade sheathed across his chest. He had a gun on him, too, but they'd all agreed no firearms on this mission. No need to alert the Rogues of their presence, and with Niko throwing the gas main outside, pumping fumes into the building, the spark of a bullet firing was liable to set the whole works off prematurely.

The latch on the boiler room door began to twist.

Lucan smelled the stench of a Rogue, and the unmistakable coppery scent of human blood. Muffled animal grunts mingled with wet smacking and the faint whine of a victim being bled dry. The door opened, letting in a huge gust of putrid air as the Rogue started to drag its dying plaything into the dark alcove.

Lucan waited to the side of the door until the Rogue's big head came into full view. The suckhead was too involved in its prey to notice the threat. Lucan brought his hand up, burying the blade in the Rogue's rib cage. It roared, huge jaws gaping, yellow eyes bulging as the titanium sped through its blood system.

The human fell to the floor in a slump, boneless, spasming in the throes of death while the Rogue who'd been feeding off of him began to sizzle and shake, blisters rising like it had been doused with acid.

No sooner did the Rogue collapse into swift decomposition than another came pounding up the corridor. Lucan leaped to meet the new attack, but before he could deliver the first blow, the suckhead came up short, yanked off its feet from behind by a black-clad arm.

A blade flashed, as crisp and quietly as lightning, across the Rogue's throat, severing the big head in one clean strike.

The huge body was dropped to the floor like rubbish. Tegan stood there, blade dripping gore, green eyes steady. He was a killing machine, and the grim set of his mouth seemed to reiterate his earlier promise to Lucan that if Bloodlust ever got the better of him, Tegan was going to make sure Lucan got his own taste of titanium fury.

Looking at the warrior now, Lucan had no doubt that if Tegan ever came for him, it would be over before he even knew the vampire was in the room.

He met that cool, lethal look and gave a nod of acknowledgment.

"Talk to me," Niko said over Lucan's earpiece. "You good in there?"

"Yeah. All clear." He cleaned his dagger on the human's shirt, then sheathed it. When he glanced up, Tegan was already gone, vanished like the specter of death that he was.

"Heading to the north entry points now to place the rest of these party cakes," he told Nikolai as he ducked out of the boiler room and crept down an empty stretch of corridor.

Chapter Thirty-two

Gabrielle, what's happening? What's wrong with Kendra? She came to the gallery and told me you were in an accident and that I had to come with her right away. Why would she lie about that?"

She didn't know how to answer Jamie's anxious, whispered questions from beside her in the backseat of the sedan. They were speeding away from Beacon Hill, toward downtown. Financial District skyscrapers loomed ahead in the dark, office lights twinkling like Christmas bulbs. Kendra sat in the front seat next to the driver, a thick-necked bouncer type in a thug's dark suit and sunglasses.

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